Member states of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) will adopt a resolution on the creation of a platform to promote sustainable fishing and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, it was announced on Thursday.
The measure was announced by Angola’s secretary of state for fisheries, Esperança Costa, as part of a meeting with ambassadors of the CPLP states in preparation for the 5th meeting of ministers for maritime affairs of the CPLP.
This meeting is scheduled to take place between 24 and 26 May, in Luanda, and its agenda and the main issues that will be discussed at the meeting were under consideration today at the headquarters of the Angolan foreign ministry.
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“There will be a resolution on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the creation of a cooperation platform for the promotion of sustainable fishing,” said Esperança Costa, at the opening of the meeting with CPLP ambassadors accredited in Angola.
According to the Angolan government official, the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing imposes great economic losses on the member states of the organisation and “limits the sustainability of marine resources.
“We began this discussion in February, in Namibe, and now we are in a position to approve a resolution for the creation of this platform to promote sustainable fishing, which will also be analysed at this meeting in Luanda,” she noted. According to the Angolan secretary of state, the Luanda meeting will also define mechanisms for concerted and joint action and will analyse “ways of intervening for better patrolling and surveillance” of the seas.
The Luanda meeting will be held under the theme, “Mobilising Partnerships and Investments for the Sustainable Development of the Seas of the CPLP Member States, Challenges and Opportunities”. For Esperança Costa, the joint mobilisation of partnerships and investments at regional and international level “is fundamental, above all to have access to international funds” that help the CPLP countries in a transition to a blue economy.
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“All CPLP countries are coastal or insular and we wanted that within the scope of the sustainable development of our seas we could count on support from international funds,” she stressed. The Angolan secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation, Domingos Vieira Lopes, stressed the importance of the preparatory meeting for the meeting of ministers of the community’s maritime affairs, as these occupy “a relevant role in the common agenda”.
“We hope to see reflected in the final declaration and other texts concrete proposals, with feasible deadlines, and why not a programme with defined actions and deadlines, in order to achieve the objectives advocated and extract mutual advantages,” he pointed out.
Cabo Verde will cease to chair the meeting of ministers of maritime affairs of the CPLP, at this meeting in Luanda, and pass the portfolios to Angola, which holds the rotating presidency of the community bloc.The blue economy, promotion of sustainable fishing and promotion and strengthening of sustainable ocean-based economies and management, protection, conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems will be some of the topics that will be analysed at the Luanda meeting.
